[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 61 (Tuesday, April 9, 2019)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E434]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                HONORING CLYDE KENNETH ``WINDY'' ENGLAND

                                  _____
                                 

                        HON. H. MORGAN GRIFFITH

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, April 9, 2019

  Mr. GRIFFITH. Madam Speaker, I offer these remarks in honor of Clyde 
Kenneth ``Windy'' England, Martinsville, Virginia's last hero of D-Day. 
Mr. England died on February 28 at the age of 103.
  He was born in Brevard, North Carolina, on May 4, 1915. After moving 
with his family to Martinsville in 1933, he worked at the Martinsville 
Cotton Mill and the Martinsville Novelty Company. In Virginia, he met 
Mildred Draper, whom he married on December 30, 1939 in the parlor of 
the old First Baptist Church.
  Amid the gathering storm that would become World War II, he joined 
the Virginia National Guard in 1936. His unit was activated in 1941 and 
later sent to Britain. On the morning of June 6, 1944, he stormed Omaha 
Beach in Normandy as a technical sergeant leading Company H of the 
116th Infantry Regiment, 29th Infantry Division.
  Bad weather had delayed the invasion by a day, and the time spent on 
the English Channel had made many of the men seasick. As the landing 
craft carrying the soldiers approached the beach, Mr. England 
remembered that the men stayed composed as they came under German fire 
without panic. They had a job to do.
  When they landed on the beach, Mr. England's unit was several hundred 
yards away from where it was supposed to be, and it became mixed up 
with several other units. He had to move his men across the beach while 
under fire to a sea wall. With smoke providing cover, the men moved up 
to the wall and were able to breach the barbed wire. Continuing to 
press onward, they arrived at their objective of Les Moulin the next 
morning, having established a beachhead. It came at a steep price to 
his unit: ten of forty men were killed and seventeen wounded, including 
Mr. England.
  He fought across France as the Allies advanced, and a wound received 
by a sniper put him in the hospital for six months. He returned to 
Martinsville after the war and continued serving in the Virginia 
National Guard until 1973. Retired Army Lieutenant Colonel W.C. Fowlkes 
remembered him as ``a soldier's soldier; everything he did was for the 
betterment of his soldiers.''
  Among his many decorations, Mr. England earned a Bronze Star, a 
Purple Heart with Cluster, an American Defense Medal, the European 
Theater of Operations Medal, a WWII Victory Medal, an Army Reserve 
Medal with two clusters, and a Virginia Service Medal with 5 clusters, 
as well as a Presidential Unit Citation Medal for his unit's role in D-
Day. On the 15th anniversary of D-Day, Mr. England was one of four 
people representing Virginia at the dedication of a memorial at Omaha 
Beach.
  Mr. England enjoyed hunting, fishing, and traveling in his 
retirement, and worshipped at the First Baptist Church of Martinsville. 
He and his wife Mildred remained happily married for 79 years before 
her death on November 12, 2018. Mr. England is survived by his daughter 
Deborah Slaydon and his grandsons Matthew and Jared Slaydon.
  In his Order of the Day for June 6, 1944, General Dwight D. 
Eisenhower told the men of the Allied Expeditionary Force, ``The eyes 
of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving 
people everywhere march with you.'' This heavy burden fell upon men 
such as Clyde ``Windy'' England. All of us who live in freedom today 
can be grateful that he and his fellow heroes of D-Day bore it with 
courage and honor until they achieved victory.

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